• Applied Microscopy
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.128-142
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• 1992

Ultrastructure of the poison secreting organ in the spiders, Agelena limbata Thorell and Nephila clavata L. Koch were studied using scanning and transmission electron microscopes. The venom glands located its secretory sac portion in cephalothorax and excretory duct in the fang of chelicera are one pair of simple alveolar glands composed of three kinds of basic tissues-outer spiral musculature, middle myoepithelium and inner glandular epithelium. The muscle cells of the venom gland junctioned with the motor nerve endings at neuromuscular contact area are composed of smooth muscle fibers, whereas the myoepithelial cells between the musculature and inner glandular epithelium have compact collagenous fibers within the cytoplasm. The glandular epithelial cells which arranged along the concentrical location are subdivided into basal light cells and apical dark cells according to electron densities of their cytoplasms.